The Alpinist/OpenTimes map/Ultimate Book List

Recomendo - issue #455

Nail-biting documentary

If you found the documentary Free Solo – about climbing sheer mountain cliffs without ropes – nerve-wracking, then you’ll find The Alpinist documentary even more so. The crazy protagonist of Free Solo says the Alpinist is even crazier – he ascends sheer mountains in winter snow and ice – without ropes and by himself. This film tries hard to explain the why – why would anyone do this for fun? Watch till the end (on Amazon Prime). The documentary explains as well as it can be explained. — KK

Travel time U.S. map

Just click anywhere on the OpenTimes map of the United States and it displays color-coded zones showing how long it would take to drive, bike, or walk to surrounding areas — up to 6 hours away. (The driving times can be optimistic since they don’t factor in traffic.) — MF

Ultimate Book List

The Ultimate Book List is a directory of books recommended by famous personalities, celebrities, and experts. I like that it includes source links to interviews and articles where these books were mentioned. If you’re just browsing, you can filter all the listed books by “most recommended.” — CD

AI photoshopping

As a photographer and artist, I’ve longed for this tool, which you can try out for free now. It’s pretty cool. Using Google’s experimental Gemini 2.0 Flash you can upload an image (photograph, painting, cartoon, etc.) and have the AI make very specific changes in the image while keeping the rest of the image intact. Usually you get very convincing edits that match the original image. Sort of like the world’s best photoshopping for free instantly. (You need to register with Google’s AI Studio > Image Generation to get this beta version. Choose Gemini 2.0 Flash (Image Generation) Experimental from the Model dropdown menu in the right column, and then use the + to upload an image, and then type your request.). — KK

Discover your cosmic worldview

This Substack post presents a two-step “cosmic worldview” quiz designed to help you identify your core beliefs about the nature of reality and your place in the cosmos. First, you answer a series of questions to identify your beliefs about the nature of reality at a high level. Once you’ve identified with a broad cosmological category, you refine your beliefs by answering one final question to pinpoint your precise view of the cosmos. I took it a few times, because I don’t have a precise view, I’m somewhere between animism, Gnosticism, and the multiverse theory. This quiz is useful for self-discovery and for understanding diverse perspectives on existence. — CD

Best Wooden Spoon Set

I’m starting to replace my plastic cooking utensils with wood and metal. I started by getting an OXO Good Grips set of 3 beech wood spoons (small, medium, and large). I like the solid (rather than laminated) design with a chunky handle. Just don’t put them in the dishwasher — that’s a quick way to ruin any wooden utensil. — MF

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03/30/25

Book Freak 176: Breathe Better to Live Better

James Nestor's Revolutionary Guide to the Science of Breathing

Get Breath

Journalist James Nestor spent years investigating how breathing practices impact our physical and mental health. Through extensive research, self-experimentation, and interviews with scientists and breathing experts worldwide, he discovered that how we breathe matters immensely for our well-being. His book — Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art — is a scientific exploration and practical guide showing how proper breathing techniques can improve sleep, boost athletic performance, reduce anxiety, strengthen immune function, and even reshape our facial structure. Nestor makes a compelling case that breathing is a hidden pillar of health that most of us get wrong, but that we can deliberately improve with profound benefits.

Four key insights from the book:

Nasal Breathing is Essential

“The nose is crucial because it clears air, heats it, and moistens it for easier absorption. Most of us know this. But what so many people never consider is the nose’s unexpected role in problems like erectile dysfunction. Or how it can trigger a cavalcade of hormones and chemicals that lower blood pressure and ease digestion. How it responds to the stages of a woman’s menstrual cycle. How it regulates our heart rate, opens the vessels in our toes, and stores memories. How the density of your nasal hairs helps determine whether you’ll suffer from asthma.”

The Power of Proper Exhalation

“Normally, the blood coursing through our arteries and veins at any one time does a full circuit once a minute, an average of 2,000 gallons of blood a day. This regular and consistent blood flow is essential to delivering fresh oxygenated blood to cells and removing waste. What influences much of the speed and strength of this circulation is the thoracic pump, the name for the pressure that builds inside the chest when we breathe. As we inhale, negative pressure draws blood into the heart; as we exhale, blood shoots back out into the body and lungs, where it recirculates. It’s similar to the way the ocean floods into shore, then ebbs out.”

The Perfect Breath

“The perfect breath is this: Breathe in for about 5.5 seconds, then exhale for 5.5 seconds. That’s 5.5 breaths a minute for a total of about 5.5 liters of air. You can practice this perfect breathing for a few minutes, or a few hours. There is no such thing as having too much peak efficiency in your body.”

The Diaphragm is Your Second Heart

“The diaphragm lifts during exhalations, which shrinks the lungs, then it drops back down to expand them during inhalations. This up-and-down movement occurs within us some 50,000 times a day. A typical adult engages as little as 10 percent of the range of the diaphragm when breathing, which overburdens the heart, elevates blood pressure, and causes a rash of circulatory problems. Extending those breaths to 50 to 70 percent of the diaphragm’s capacity will ease cardiovascular stress and allow the body to work more efficiently.”

03/29/25

Gar’s Tips & Tools – Issue #196

Access to tools, techniques, and shop tales from the diverse worlds of DIY

The Clam Switches of Warsaw

I found this 14-minute documentary utterly captivating. In Warsaw, Poland, they use clams to monitor water quality—an ingenious and surprisingly elegant system. Eight clams are outfitted with a tiny, spring-mounted contact on their top shells. If the water becomes too polluted, the clams instinctively shut, triggering an alarm and closing off the water supply. Simple, natural, brilliant. The film itself has a slow-burn, meditative European quality—like if Ingmar Bergman did a documentary on city water management. [Via Jay Townsend]

Clamps: Their History and Uses

One of me besties, Peter Bebergal, sent me a link to this 1980 guide to clamps from the Cincinnati Tool Company. Basic stuff, but a fun browse for anyone who loves tools, tool history, and vintage industrial training materials.

Tips from an Engineer: Improving Workflow and Precision

In this insightful video, Zach, The Byte-Sized Engineer, shares eight invaluable lessons he’s learned during his years of hands-on engineering and project building. From the importance of failing quickly to improving problem-solving efficiency, to the hidden functions of digital calipers (depth gauge, step measuring) that enhance measurement accuracy, these practical tips can save time and frustration. He highlights tools like logic analyzers for debugging, deburring tools for cleaning 3D prints, and corrugated tubing for better wire management, all aimed at making engineering work more efficient. Additional tips include using isopropyl alcohol to remove hot glue easily, strengthening CA/super glue bonds with baking soda, and adopting better soldering techniques using flux gels and third-hand tools. Whether you’re a seasoned engineer or a hobby maker, these tips might help improve your workflow and precision.

Did He Say ‘Home Depot Arrowheads”?

Maker pal Dug North sent me this recent video of his ‘cause he thought that I “might get a kick out of it.” He was right! Having always been interested in flintknapping, I love watching videos of people doing it. And I especially fine glassknapping fascinating. In this video, Dug makes his own knapping tools from common Home Depot materials.

Cool Tools’ Kevin Kelly has pointed out something interesting about flintknapping (and other “bygone” technologies). There are actually more people practicing this stone age technology today than when it was the reigning tool tech. In fact, Kevin argues, technologies rarely die off. Once conceived, human inventions, regardless of their obsolescence, continue to exist through enthusiasts, historians, and niche communities. Dug knows a few things about this. When not knapping glass arrowheads and doing bushcraft, he also engages in the ancient art of mechanical automata.

Making a Screw Shortening Jig

Quinn of Blondihacks delivers another fantastic machining tutorial, this time focusing on creating a custom screw shortening tool—a handy bit ‘o kit for model engineers, watchmakers, and anyone needing small, precision screws cut to length. The project evolved from a makeshift aluminum jig she originally made into a durable steel fixture with precisely-machined threaded holes, solving the problem of deforming screw ends while ensuring repeatable accuracy. As usual, along the way, Quinn offers valuable machining insights, including stress-relief techniques, optimal cutting methods, and the importance of deburring. A clever last-minute fix—adding a “keeper” to stabilize the tool’s jaws—proves the iterative nature of good design. Finished with cold bluing and stamped size markings, the final tool is both functional and refined. Another fun and informative watch for machining enthusiasts, armchair [raises hand[, or otherwise.

Your Inspired Objects

I got a wonderful response to my piece about inspired objects. I’ll be showing them over the next few issues. This is inspired objects — humble objects edition. If you have an object you think is inspired (humble or otherwise), please share it!

Sydney Smith writes:

This is an inexpensive Japanese utility knife purchased on Amazon. Search for Takagi Gisuke Cutting. Before decorating with chip carving, it was so-so. After decoration, it’s enjoyable to pick up and use. Now it’s a workbench favorite.

I love this handle “hack” from reader Gideon Weinerth. I think I’m going to have to try this:

This is my inspired object. I took a Rada brand vegetable peeler which was excellent but had a crummy discolored handle. I wrapped the handle in aluminum foil and then applied a layer of Sculpey polymer clay over it. I then squeezed the bulkier handle until it perfectly matched my hand positions for way I like to peel. I baked it, let it cool, then dipped it in Plasti-Dip which needs another application. Makes meal prep a dream. Great technique for any other sub-par handle.

Ernie Hayden writes:

I was given one of these iSlice ceramic cutters about 10-15 years ago and use it almost daily to cut open tight, cellophane packaging, sealed packages, etc. It is really terrific. My old one even has a magnet in the handle so it can be placed on a metal cabinet or metal toolbox for handy use.

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Consider a Paid Subscription

Gar’s Tips & Tools is free, but if you really like what I’m doing here and want to support me, please consider a paid subscription. Same great taste, but more cheddar for me to help keep me stocked in neodymium magnets. I will also pick paid subscribers at random and send them out little treats on occasion.

We have a winner! Rob Stone, you were the winner of our Work Pro multitool (or PDFs of my tips books) drawing. Congrats! I sent you an email.

Special thanks to all of my paid subscribers so far and an extra special thanks to Hero of the Realm, Jim Coraci.

Gar’s Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales is published by Cool Tools Lab. To receive the newsletter a week early, sign up here.

03/28/25

Splitwise App/Free Lounge Access/Most Comfortable Airlines

Nomadico issue #148

Georgia is a Great Value

Greetings from the Republic of Georgia, where I’ve been leading a group tour that involved cultural sightseeing, days of skiing, and lots of food and wine debauchery. This was the only country in my living abroad book that I hadn’t set foot in personally, so I’m glad to see it is still holding up well on the value side. One-day ski passes are $29, beer and wine are half or less what you’d pay in the USA or Canada, and a subway ride is under 40 cents. My first hotel when arriving early was $32 per night and we stayed at one of the nicest ones in Tbilisi, right next to Parliament, for under $100 per night. My local expat friends Tom and Meg from Eat This! Tours say the majority of monthly rents are currently running $400 to $1,400 so it doesn’t cost much to live well here.

Splitwise App for Group Travel

Separate checks are a server’s worst nightmare if they will even do it, but usually they won’t for a group in countries where that is not common. I used the Splitwise app for the first time this month as 10 of us dined and drank around Georgia together, with one person picking up the check each time then entering what other individuals owed into Splitwise. After 19 “Check please” transactions, most of the expenses canceled out and I owed 3 people a small balance that added up to $49 total. Because of this app, we hardly ever needed cash (and people could take turns racking up travel points).

A Cheaper Priority Pass Back Door

If you don’t fly business class or have another way into specific airline lounges, Priority Pass is a great alternative in most international airports. I wanted to have it in place before a long layover in the Istanbul airport, but to get it included with a credit card now usually requires an annual fee of $400 or more, more than just buying membership outright. I found one exception though. This Altitude Connect card from US Bank only gets you four included lounge visits a year, but it has no annual fee, no foreign transaction fees, and you get 20K travel portal points after a $1,000 minimum spend. So yes, I got my Istanbul food and drinks gratis in the nice lounge there instead of paying some of the highest airport prices in the world.

World’s Best Airlines

I’ve been flying on Turkish Airlines on this trip, which was #10 overall in the full-service category of this list of the best airlines in the world. Rankings are all about the criteria used and the criteria in this one are the factors that really matter once you’re on the plane, like seat pitch, meal/drink service, entertainment, and charging outlets. Taking the top spots were Korean Air and Qatar in the full-service category, JetBlue and Westjet in the hybrid category, and AirAsia and Jetstar in the budget category. Click the link to see a few other classifications for regional airlines.

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

03/27/25

What’s in my NOW? — Mary Lucia Darst

issue #206

Mary Lucia Darst founded ClefRights, a music publishing and technology startup. She holds a DPhil (PhD) in Music from the University of Oxford and is a member of St Hilda’s College. She is an avid polyglot and speaks twelve languages to varying degrees of fluency.

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PHYSICAL

• A broken PenBBS 489 – The 489 is a vacuum-filler fountain pen that’s one of my personal favourites to use, but the finial has come off. All my attempts to reattach it have failed, but I leave it on my desk and fiddle with it between calls.
• Traveler’s Company brass pencil case – my desk doesn’t have any drawers, so I use the pencil case to keep track of small objects, such as USB drives, ink cartridges, erasers, etc.
• Assorted books – currently on my desk are Lord Chesterfield’s Letters to His Son, Chocolate Wars: From Cadbury to Kraft: 200 Years of Sweet Success and Bitter Rivalry by Deborah Cadbury, Barbarossa: And the Bloodiest War in History by Stewart Binns, and The Right It: Why So Many Ideas Fail and How to Make Sure Yours Succeed by Alberto Savoia

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DIGITAL

• LibraryThing – I prefer LibraryThing to GoodReads for tracking and cataloguing my books.
• My own digital humanities project Oxford Dawn. I publish it every other week or so and the topics are based on what I’m reading or researching at the moment.

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INVISIBLE

My health.

When I was in my doctoral programme, I realised that my health was crucial. I’m counting it as invisible because when everything is working, one never notices it.

03/26/25

B.P.R.D / Manabeshima Island Japan

Issue No. 59

IF YOU’RE IN FOR LOVECRAFTIAN HORROR AND NAZI PUNCHING, PICK UP B.P.R.D: 1946-1948

B.P.R.D: 1946-1948
by Mike Mignola
Dark Horse Books
2015, 472 pages, 6.9 x 10.4 x 1.4 inches (hardcover)

Buy on Amazon

I can’t get enough of Mignola’s occult investigators. The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense first appeared in the Hellboy series, however the comics have spiraled off to rightfully stand on their own. This HUGE hardback collects stories from the Bureau’s early years, not long after its creation in 1944. If you’ve been following the series, this collection fills in a large gap between the organization’s inception, and where the Hellboy comics pick up in the modern day.

A year after WWII ends, the Bureau is left trying to stamp out one of Hitler’s last ditch efforts to turn the war around. Professor Trevor Bruttenholm, Hellboy’s guardian, is seen here as a younger man battling the forces of evil, and trying to prevent the Reich from amassing power yet again.

There’s so much to love about this book – vampires, an evil Nazi head in a jar, sentient chimpanzees. The artwork is incredible. Mignola worked with a whole slew of illustrators all who brought a unique interpretation to the gothic style that fills out this world. Knowing a little about the Hellboy universe is helpful, but not necessary. If you’re up for some Lovecraftian horror and Nazi punching, definitely pick this one up. – JP LeRoux

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MANABESHIMA ISLAND – A TRAVEL DIARY ABOUT GETTING LOST ON THE MOST ISOLATED ISLAND IN JAPAN

Manabeshima Island Japan: One Island, Two Months, One Minicar, Sixty Crabs, Eighty Bites, and Fifty Shots of Shochu
by Florent Chavouet
Tuttle Publishing
2015, 144 pages, 7.5 x 10 x 0.6 inches (softcover)

Buy on Amazon

In 2009, illustrator Florent Chavouet decided to shrug off city life and get lost somewhere off the beaten path. Way off the beaten path. Stating, “The country [Japan] claims more than four thousand islands. But I only know two,“ as reason enough and taking pencils in hand, Chavouet traveled to the smallest, most isolated island he could find: the small fishing island of Manabeshima.

A good travel diary is built on unfamiliar, sometimes incomprehensible scenes brought to life by the ability of its author to paint pictures in the readers’ minds. He or she must make both the physical and cultural descriptions of a place and its people understandable, and relatable. In lovely, delicate colors, Chavouet does exactly that. Whether it is by detailing the furnishings and artifacts layered in a photographer’s home or in the odd and surprising detritus cluttering up the local post office, the author shows us all the minutia of daily life on this tiny island.

Chavouet has a knack for finding the little details that define people and places in our minds. We meet Hironobu, whose “round belly fills him with joy.” We meet a nameless vagabond who seems to take delight in inserting himself into Chavouet’s personal space. We meet Reizo-san, an old man who taught English in Hiroshima after the war. And on and on until it seems that the entirety of the town must have come straight from central casting just to populate this charming locale.

In between and alongside the descriptions and sketches of people and places are all the tiny things that make up daily life. There are sketches of fish and vegetables and maps of the local cat gangs’ territories. There are structured stories about spending a day crab fishing or attending the village festival. There is a glossary and an appendix and even a fold-out map of the island.

I had never heard of Manabeshima before I picked up this book. I still have a hard time finding it on a map. But that’s not really all that important. What matters is Chavouet’s sense of earnest enthusiasm. It’s contagious. Which makes this a book worth reading again and again while you plot your next adventure. While watching a local production about gods and devils, Chavouet notes, “[It’s] A bit on the light side for a script but it makes you want to be in it.” I guess you could say that about Manabeshima, too. – Joel Neff

03/25/25

What’s in my NOW? — Mary Lucia Darst